Hubdub CEO explains imminent closure to concentrate on FanDuel

Hubdub, the online news prediction site which was launched in Edinburgh two-and-a-half years ago, is set to close at the end of the month as its founders look to concentrate on their online fantasy sports game FanDuel.

Nigel Eccles told The Drum that the reason for closing Hubdub was due to a lack of resource to keep the site going while they concentrated on their new venture, which has already agreed a partnership deal with Philly.com and has multiple expressions of interest from other US newspaper partners.

“We’ve had a couple of notes of interest but I think it’s unlikely that anything else will happen other than us closing it to be honest. There would be quite a lot of work to do if we were to sell it, so it probably will close,” said Eccles when asked about potential buyers for Hubdub.

Eccles explained that the reason for looking to a new venture in FanDuel was due to the lack of advertising that Hubdub was able to attract.

“The publishers that we are speaking to are looking for bits of revenue stream, they’re not looking for things that can drive more page impressions because they are already struggling to sell the page impressions they have. FanDuel is a brilliant product for them because what we do is, we plug it in and then we send a cheque every month, direct revenue from your users. They love that. Whereas Hubdub was a much harder sell,” Eccles explained.

The company currently has seven members of staff with two based full-time in Scotland, two full time in the US and two moving back and forth between both countries.

Asked whether the game could be set up in the UK, Eccles said that the company has already hoped to launch a Premiership football based version but that had been postponed due to the level of interest in the States, but could be revitalised in the next year.